Family Pictures 2010

I did our own family pictures a couple weeks ago. It was cold, wet, and miserable. But we wanted the fall colors and knew they were going to gone so we went for it.

Mommy & Me Swim Lessons

Dax and Mommy did swim lessons together for 9 whole days!
Dax likes water, but he doesn't like getting his face wet and he's pretty cautious, so we did swim lessons to help him get use to the water and also to learn some water safety.

First couple times we went Mommy would ask Dax if he wanted to go swimming in the pool.
His reply-"No. No want to" By the end of this experience the same question got a "YEAH!" with a full thrust of the arms

The Routine-
Sing Wheels on the bus while doing actions(paddling arms for wheels, going back and forth in the water for wipers, go up and down, and splashing for coins going clink)
Wheels on the Bus was Dax's favorite thing to do

Throw squirt toy and reach for it. First few days Dax thought this was dumb and would throw his toy fairly close to him but he would still reach for it. Towards the end of our session he would throw it as far as a could and reach and kick the whole way there.

Sing Row Row Row Your Boat while paddling arms

Throw toy and paddle arms

Blow Bubbles

Throw toy, reach and blow bubbles

Float on back(Dax HATED this but still did it and by the end of the 9 days he still didn't like it but tolerated it)

Ring Around the Rosies(Another Favorite)

Kicking Legs

Jumping into the Pool

Safety we learned-
No running around the pool
Make sure your with a grown up if you get in the pool
spider crawl along the edge

The last day of swim was a play day and Dax and Mommy got to go down the BIG tube slide as much as we wanted(which turned out to be once cuz Dax just wanted to watch rather then go down the slide) Still alot of fun!

Costa Rica Pics

Chaco Ad

We navigated class III & IV rapids

(picture not actually us, camera not waterproof)

Best part of the trip!

In La Fortuna we....

Saw this volcano called Arenal

Ate Fresh Pinapple

Here

and We went ziplining(not actually us)

Didn't want to bring my camera on the zip line and didn't want to pay 20 dollars for a cd so Jake and I will have our mental pictures until we lose our memories

We saw this guy on the road in San Gerardo. Or at least this is what we think we saw. It jumped right into our path and stared at us and we stared back at it and then it was gone....

The Roca Dura Hotel- Where we stayed before and after our hike. There was a path right by our room/cave that went down to the river

The Big Hike (Round Trip from hotel 44 kms)

There's a story to the punching......It's a hike, Nicole gets bored so her imagination goes a little beyond.....She would punch each km marker until Jake asks her what she is doing. Her explanation-There is a PNCh on each marker which in my mind creates the word PUNCH so I punch it! So we punched each marker as they came!

Another Nicole thought process story- Costa Rica is BIG TIME Scenic! Beauty everywhere you look. Anyways....In my head-As the hike continued onward things looked a lot like the planet Pandora in Avatar. I wondered if James Cameron (the director) visited the rain forest for research. He probably didn't have to hike through it carrying his own gear....He may have even had a ATV or a litter to carry him..... 

Said out loud- "James Cameron, eat your heart out."

Jake starts rolling on the ground, laughing.  Thus born catch phrase for the rest of the trip.

The Summit of Mount Chirripo 12, 533 ft

The last couple of days we played/recovered at La Playa Dominical. We got sunburned but it turned into some beautiful tans that lasted a couple of days

There were two types of iguanas that we saw. This guy and then the bigger green iguana